Cannes Lions

World's Most Successful Recruitment Video

OGILVY NEW ZEALAND, Auckland / NEW ZEALAND POLICE / 2018

Presentation Image
Film
Supporting Content

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Description

We knew if we were to succeed making an impact on everyone, then the public would need to hear from people they could identify with. So, we used over 70 diverse, real officers, along with numerous social influencers, to deliver our message – all while taking place during an action-packed on-foot police chase.

The police band play the live soundtrack to the ad, as our ever-changing spokesperson runs along, jumping, sliding and diving through and around various obstacles, all while delivering our message about our need for diversity.

As we are appealing to a New Zealand audience, the video has comedic elements tailored to a Kiwi brand of humour, and the cult heroes and social influencers we use, from sports stars, to radio DJs to LGBTIQ+ icons, and viral sensations, appeal to different demographics, cultures and communities.

Execution

With a limited budget, we put all our eggs in the production budget, to make the best video we could. But this only left us with $20K for a media spend. We believed and hoped that the content of the video would be good enough to generate its own PR.

So, with a single post on New Zealand Police’s Facebook page, to their 150,000 followers, we put the recruitment video out into the world.

We also asked the social influencers that starred in the video, as well as the Police’s 12,000 staff members, to share the video through their own social media pages. They did, and it soon started to be shared.

Outcome

At 4pm, November 26, 2017, the recruitment video was posted on New Zealand Police’s Facebook page. By 5pm, it was picked up by all major NZ news channels. By 10am the following day, it had already amassed over $4 million worth of earned media.

It then went viral around the world, being picked up by all the world’s major news networks. And within a week of its release, it had reached 91.8 million people.

It also saw a month’s worth of enquiries in the first 24 hours, was the number 1 trending video on YouTube and Facebook, received a 31,422% return on media spend and importantly saw an 898% increase of visits to newcops.co.nz.

But most importantly it saw a 615% increase in diverse profiles created, and an intake of the largest number of female recruits, ever.

Similar Campaigns

12 items

Survive The Drive FM

FCB NEW ZEALAND, Auckland

Survive The Drive FM

2022, NEW ZEALAND POLICE

(opens in a new tab)